Many adults 'drinking to excess'

Despite being less able to tolerate alcohol people in their 30s and 40s are drinking to excess more than younger people are, a new survey has found.

A third of people questioned by YouGov for a government-commissioned poll said drinking too much had ruined a night out for them at least once in the past year.

Almost half said they sometimes drink too much and admitted they do not stick to recommended limits.

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Excessive drinking in older years is leading to serious health problems, with NHS admissions for alcohol-related conditions increasing from around 50,000 in 2002/03 to 75,000 in 2005/06.

Dr Sarah Jarvis, a GP and advisor to Alcohol Concern, warned that people are not as capable at dealing with alcohol after their 30s.

'If you consider that in terms of getting the health consequences of binge drinking you only need to have six units as a woman or eight units as a man, I'm afraid there are an awful lot of people sitting very quietly in their own homes indulging in exactly that,' she told the Today programme.

'As you get older you're less capable of tolerating alcohol in the way that you did before; your organs simply don't take it in the same way, so you may do yourself damage from the same amount of alcohol that you could have got away with when you were younger.'

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